by Eladrin

Hello everyone!

The Cosmic Storms Mechanical Expansion is nearly here, so today we’ve got preliminary release notes and some of the Custodian changes.

Cosmic Storms is going to be released next Tuesday, on September 10th.
As part of the Custodian changes in 3.13 ‘Vela’, we’ve made some changes to how some planetary deposits for rare resources are handled.

The deposits that previously gave access to Crystal Mines, Gas Extraction Wells and Mote Harvesting Traps buildings, now instead increase the number of mining districts available on the planet and, after researching the technology to extract the relevant resource, add a small amount of resource production to miners on that planet.



Additionally, we’ve buffed the Betharian Power Plant to increase the energy produced by Technician Jobs.



Much like how Resort Worlds were updated earlier this year, we have taken the time to revisit both Penal Colonies and Thrall worlds.

Penal Colonies now both reduce crime across your empire while giving access to unique Prison Industrial Districts. These allow you to employ worker strata pops to produce alloys and consumer goods.



Thrall Worlds on the other hand have taken inspiration from the countless examples across science fiction of elite battle thrall armies and give access to the Battle Thrall District. Armies trained on a Thrall World will start with additional XP and Battle Thrall jobs will increase the damage your armies do.



And now, on to the release notes.

• Eight dynamic new storm types:
  
  • Electric, Particle, Gravity, Magnetic, Radiant, Stardust, Shroud, and Nexus storms
• New Origin: Storm Chasers
  
• Three new Civics
  
  • Astrometeorology
    
  • Planetscapers
    
  • Storm Devotion
• New Ascension Perk: Galactic Weather Control
  
• Weather Forecast Map Mode
  
• Two new Precursors
  
  • The adAkkaria Convention of Benevolence
    
  • The Inetian Traders
• New Technologies and Buildings
  
• New Planetary Deposits, Modifiers and Anomalies following Storm Aftermaths
  
• New GalCom Resolutions and Edicts
  
• New Events and Anomalies

Improvements

• Update to Thrall Worlds, adding two new slave-focused districts, Battle Thrall Jobs, and improvements to tooltips and theme
  
• Update to Prison Worlds - adding two new penal-focused districts, five new jobs, and improvements to tooltips and theme
  
• Xenophobe ethics now swaps to providing pop assembly when appropriate
  
• The location of empire-scope special projects will move to the new capital if the empire’s capital changes
  
• Gestalt Empires are now allowed to decide on their land appropriation policy, and are no longer forced to populate every planet
  
• Corvee System now gives -15% resettlement cost for Individualist Machines
  
• Standardized volume of all advisor VO lines
  
• War allies will be able to use wormholes, hyper relays, and gateways in each other's territory even if their borders are closed
  
• Removed the galaxy-wide Space Storm introduced in 2.7 “Wells”

UI

• Updated the megastructure selection UI
  
  • Improved tooltips in the megastructure selection UI
    
  • When selecting a location for Arc Furnace stage 1, the tooltip shows the number of deposit sites in the system
    
  • When selecting a location for a Habitat Central Complex, the tooltip shows orbital capacities in the system
    
  • Fixed tooltip not showing when selecting a location to build a megastructure
• Map icons in galaxy and system view no longer truncate the resource amount when between 0 and 1
  
• The tooltip that mentions if a civic is locked is now red instead of orange
  
• Enabled mouse scrolling in the research completed window
  
• Extended the minimum width of the "Veteran Level Reached!" window in case too few options are available to choose from
  
• Fixed some overlapping UI in the Empire Creation screens
  
• Fixed position of "Cross-platform play" checkbox on MS Store
  
• Updated the Map Modes UI
  
  • The Players map mode is no longer available when observing in singleplayer
    
  • The Players and Trade Routes map mode buttons are now disabled instead of hidden when they're unavailable
    
  • Fixed Players mapmode not graying out AI empires in some cases
    
  • The Unions map mode is now a regular map mode instead of a toggle

Bugfix

• Fixed the placeholder icon for the diplomatic message to request to join the galactic imperium
  
• Made AI capable of building planetary shields
  
• The Chthonian Planet, Extensive Moon System and Carbon World modifiers will now only add their mineral deposits to the planet the first time they are surveyed instead of every time they are surveyed
  
• Corrected tooltip and loyalty effects for the Ministry of Acquisition
  
• Individualistic Machine empires should no longer get an event intended for Organics
  
• Fixed the Nanite Intercessor being present in ship previews in the empire creator
  
• Fixed cyberpunk advisor lines for council agenda ready and council agenda available notifications
  
• Fixed fleets' cloaking strength sometimes not updating when ships' cloaking strength changes due to modifiers
  
• Fixed juggernauts not showing the fleet bombardment button
  
• Election auto pausing and unpausing now functions like other event pop ups
  
• Removed the double modifiers for Defense platforms from Ancient Shield Overcharger
  
• Removed serviles from the can_think trigger due to unintended knock on effects
  
• If an arc furnace is built around a potential Contingency Hub, when the planet becomes their hub, the arc furnace is correctly destroyed
  
• Fixed uncovered deposits not being removed when an arc furnace is destroyed
  
• Colossus special project will reward the original country that started the project instead of the current planet owner
  
• Leaders who are researching an anomaly or project or on cooldown can be assigned to the council
  
• Roccan Resistance and Free Peoples of the Fall genders changed from indeterminate to default
  
• The species of planetary defense armies will get updated after species modification
  
• AI empires will select ethics required by their origin
  
• All starbase types now explode when destroyed instead of blinking out of existence
  
• Fixed numerous instances, such as when establishing an embassy, where the game would load the countries home planet instead of their capital
  
• Game should no longer crash when an empire you had a trade deal with is destroyed during a war
  
• Various Out Of Sync fixes
  
• War allies will be able to use each wormholes in each other's territory even if their borders are closed

Modding

• Implemented "on_storm_encountered" on_action when a country is affected for the first time by a new storm
  
• Added on_storm_entered_system on-action
  
• Added on_storm_left_system on-action, for when a cosmic storm has left a solar system
  
• Added support for generate_random_name = yes to the spawn_planet effect
  
• Refactored Arcology industrial districts into Inline Scripts
  
• Replaced all "has_authority" checks with scripted triggers making it easier to add new authorities
  
• Added the awakening_not_allowed country flag that blocks fallen empires from awakening
  
• Added the keep_deposit_on_terraform deposit flag to make sure deposits don't go missing when you terraform
  
• Added "visible" trigger to map modes
  
• Added "tutorial" member to map modes
  
• Added is_infertile trigger
  
• Added support for displaying comma and period as hotkeys in button tooltips
  
• Added planet_crime_floor_add modifier that sets a minimum level of crime on a planet
  
• Added fail trigger for special projects + documentation
  
• Added 'mod_name_affix' to create_species effect
  
• Added num_asteroid_belts trigger to check the number of asteroids in a system
  
• Added game rules for founder_species_uses_growth_speed, founder_species_uses_organic_assembly and founder_species_uses_assembly
  
• Added game rule to force visibility on fleets for a specific system

With the release planned for next Tuesday, our next expected dev diary will be on September 19th.

See you then!

Pre-purchase Stellaris: Cosmic Storms alone or with a discount as part of Stellaris: Season 08!​

by Eladrin

Hi everyone,

Today, we’ll review the Origin and Civics of the Cosmic Storms Mechanical Expansion and provide some information about the new Precursors (without spoiling everything!)

Cosmic Storms is going to be released on September 10th.

Passing it over to @PDX_Ferry and @Gruntsatwork to take over from here.

Don’t make unnecessary journeys, don’t take risks on treacherous roads, and don’t swim in the sea! This is PDX_Ferry, braving the winds to deliver you a report on the new "Storm Chasers" Origin. For those who thrive on danger and yearn for the thrill of the unknown, this Origin was designed with you in mind.

Start your game as a civilization that has always sought out the extremes. Born on a world ravaged by relentless storms, the Storm Chasers are daredevils and thrill seekers who push themselves to the limits and beyond. They’ve grown strong and daring, turning their chaotic environment into a crucible of innovation and tenacity. But when every storm has been weathered, and every mountain has been climbed, where does an enterprising thrill-seeker turn next? The answer, of course, is the stars.



The screenshot above was taken from the new pre-scripted empire Yatunan Radicals, which starts with the Origin and a couple of storm-related Civics. While not driven to outmatch others in acts of bravery, hive minds, and machine intelligences may also want to test themselves with this Origin.

From the very beginning, your empire will be propelled into the thick of the DLC’s content, facing down cosmic phenomena that would make even the most seasoned explorers hesitate. Yet, with great risk comes the potential for great reward.





This Origin is designed to quickly get you into the think of the DLC's action. At game start, your Empire is thrown into the Stormfall situation:



With early access to storm manipulation technology and by starting in a system with unique conditions to kickstart a storm, the Storm Chasers have the first opportunity to unleash a storm. From there, the Origin's storyline includes a gauntlet of Challenges, and the chance to summon "the Big One." What's left of your civilization in the aftermath rests entirely in your hands (or tentacles!)

So be warned – this is not a path for the faint-hearted. The thrills your people have chased for centuries pale in comparison to the cosmic tempests that await you in the void. Will you harness these forces and lead your empire to greatness, or will you burn out in a blaze of glory? The choice, as always, is yours.
Do You Know What Happens to a Blorg When It’s Hit by Lightning?​
Hello there xeno-freshmen, could we interest you in Astrometeorology 101?

As the first of the three new civics coming in Cosmic Storms, Astrometeorology focuses on the science behind the storms. It grants you a new building, the Astrometeorology Observatory, which in turn gives you Astrometeorologist jobs.





You can build one of those fine institutes per planet and their jobs are similar enough to normal researchers with a slight focus on physics. However, their true potential shows itself only when the Observatory can behold a storm from up close.

In addition, the council position further boosts the job output by up to 20%.

What, you prefer something more societal? Maybe have a look at our second new civic then.



The spiritualistic mirror to Astrometeorology, Storm Devotion gives you access to the Storm Summoning Theater, with its Storm Dancer jobs.



In addition, those devoted to Storms also bear this mark as a new species trait called “Storm Touched”, which further boost all pops while inside of a storm. As if that weren’t enough, the Council Position for Storm Devotion reduces the upkeep of all Storm Buildings.



Storms this, Storms that, is there anything for people who’d rather not see the word Storm plastered over all of their buildings?

Absolutely, let’s talk about Planetscapers.

Planetscapers are the complete opposite of Environmentalists. They want every planetary blocker gone, natural accidents have no place in their carefully planned garden utopias.



You yearn to make all these rugged, overgrown planets into something beautiful and pristine. For some, Mastery of Nature is enough, but your need requires something more drastic, something more impressive.



As you expand, every world with natural blockers that you colonize will allow you to quickly unlock more ways to remove those eyesores.
You get a Precursor and you get a precursor, everyone gets a precursor!

We have two new Precursors for you all to experience.

The adAkkaria Convention of Benevolence and The Inetian Traders, both steeped in Storm Lore, with several archaeology sites and special projects to progress through as you uncover their secrets, diggin’ deeper into what sorts of empires would meddle with storms so devastating they are notable on the cosmic scale.

So without giving out too many spoilers, from their names at least you know they were benevolent people and peaceful traders with little chance for tragedy.





Next week we’ll have the preliminary release notes for the 3.13 ‘Vela’ update and Cosmic Storms! It’s almost here!

See you then!

Pre-purchase Stellaris: Cosmic Storms alone or with a discount as part of Stellaris: Season 08!​

Hi everyone,

The Cosmic Storms Mechanical Expansion is going to make planetfall on September 10th. That’s not that far away, so today we’ll be going over the Storm mechanics and their aftermath effects.

Passing it over to Gruntsatwork to take over from here.
Hello everyone, without much preamble, lets dive right into the new storm mechanics.

• Storms will randomly start to spawn a few years after gamestart.
  
• Each Storm triggers a cooldown until the next natural storm can spawn (adjustable in Game Settings)
  
• There is a limit to how many storms can spawn naturally in the early, mid and late-game (adjustable in Game Settings)
  
• Those limits only apply to randomly spawned storms. Storms created by players, by event or mechanic, will always spawn regardless of any other settings
  
• Upon being spawned, they will have a target system towards which they will move, dissipating upon reaching that goal or timing out

While the storms through the galaxy, they will have an effect on all systems within their influence.
All Storms share 2 general effects:

• Reduced chance for Emergency FTL jumps
  
• +0.2 monthly devastation

In Addition, each of the 8 Storms has their own unique effects, here are the first 6:













While the first 6 storms are rather orthodox in their effects, the Shroud and Nexus storms are a bit special.

Shroud storms have a chance to change the systems within their influence immediately upon coming into contact, this can range from colonies, habitable and inhabitable planets, up to stars.

Nexus storms are special. They are rarer than any other storm and for a good reason, they are bad news. A Nexus storm is an opportunity… for everyone else. They wreak havoc across all worlds in their influence with a far greater intensity than the other, lesser, storms.
After a storm leaves a system, its ongoing effects are removed. However, given their cataclysmic impact, there are a few aftermaths to deal with.

Each Storm leaves behind their own unique Aftermath modifier, lasting for 3 years. Those aftermaths have an intensity between 1-3, with 3 being the strongest modifiers. (The effects themselves are the same, only intensity increases.)













In addition, when a storm leaves a system, there is also a chance it will leave behind new unique Planetary Features, Planetary Modifiers and Anomalies.

Some New Planetary Features:







Example of a New Modifier:



Examples of some New Anomalies:





Some of those storms can get quite nasty and devastation is always worrisome, so how do you stop the storms from ravaging your planets?



We have introduced several new buildings and technologies to protect yourself or maybe squeeze a bit more use out of a storm.

Storm Attraction and Storm Repulsion are the two ways in which you can manipulate the paths in which storms move. Storm Attraction buildings and their repelling counterparts can be build on planets and starbases. Each has 1 upgrade level and grants you researcher jobs.

In Addition you can build the Storm Relief Center, to reduce some of the effects of the storms, while also buffing your base resource output while a storm is affecting your planet. Should you be able to convince the Galactic Community to pass a few storm related resolutions, those bonuses will become even more powerful.



With the Storm Relief Center you also have the option of “Hunkering Down”, a new planetary decision to reduce your devastation gain and reduce some of the storm's impact.



As you encounter cosmic storms, you will also get access to new technologies meant to reduce some of their negative effects on your economy and ships.



As your last line of defense, you can use your Planetary Shield Generators to reduce the devastation you gain from storms by -50%

All in all, a prepared player will have many options of avoiding the worst of the storms effects, while benefiting from the opportunities they offer, using them to tip the scales between themselves and their enemies.
Once you have researched the necessary technologies, you will be able to use the new Weather mapmode to get a good overview of both Storm Attraction/Repulsion as well as the paths already existing storms will take.



I’m sure knowing where a storm that grants cloaking to all ships within will move is something none of you will abuse.
Next week we’ll be going over the Storm Chaser Origin, the new Civics, and the new Precursors.

See you then!

Pre-purchase Stellaris: Cosmic Storms alone or with a discount as part of Stellaris: Season 08!​

I’m excited to announce that Episode 2 of Stellaris: Season 08, the Cosmic Storms mechanical expansion, will be released alongside the Stellaris 3.13 ‘Vela’ update on September 10th, 2024.


Note: Tooltips shown in the video were from a development branch that has already been updated, more info next week.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2863060/Stellaris_Cosmic_Storms/



For some time we have been unsatisfied with the Space Storm that currently exists in Stellaris. Cosmic Storms gave us the opportunity to revamp the system entirely, providing a deeper experience with strategically meaningful gameplay and beautiful upgraded visuals.

With this expansion, eight new storms with varying positive and negative effects are set to spiral across the galaxy.

We’ve also added a new weather map mode for forecasting these storms and predicting their motion, with technologies and buildings to attract, repel, or with an Ascension Perk, even create storms.




Storms may pass through your planets with intriguing effects, leaving behind a changed landscape or unearthing long buried treasures.




What's life without the rush?

Other empires may obsess about heinous things like economy and population. The Storm Chasers have long since mastered the challenges of their homeworld. The time has come to blast off screaming into the void.

At last, a whole new opportunity to shred the limits of experience!




Prepare your empires to weather the cosmic tempests with three new Civics, each offering unique strategies to harness the power of the elements.


The Corporate, Hive Mind, or Machine Intelligence versions of these Civics require access to their Authorities - MegaCorp, Utopia, and either Synthetic Dawn or The Machine Age, respectively.




Embark on a journey through the annals of time with two new Precursor Event Chains, each offering a glimpse into the ancient history of the Stellaris universe. These chains weave tales of civilizations long lost to the cosmic winds, with untold secrets buried beneath the stars.



Stellaris: Cosmic Storms includes:

• Cosmic Storms that ravage the galaxy
  
• Storm Chaser Origin
  
• Civics
  
  • Planetscapers
    
  • Astrometeorology
    
  • Storm Devotion
• Two new Precursor narratives, with two new Relics
  
• Events, Anomalies, and Archaeology Sites
  
• Storm-related technologies, Edicts, Galactic community resolutions, and an Ascension Perk

• Aug 15 - Announcing Cosmic Storms
  
• Aug 22 - The Storms and their Aftermaths
  
• Aug 29 - Storm Chaser Origin, Civics, and Precursors
  
• Sept 5 - 3.13 "Vela" and Cosmic Storms Release Notes

Cosmic Storms can be purchased as part of the Stellaris: Season 08 Expansion Pass, or as a standalone purchase for $12.99 (regional pricing may vary). It is also included as part of the Stellaris Expansion Subscription


Pre-Purchase Stellaris: Cosmic Storms alone, or with a discount as part of Stellaris: Season 08!

Hello everyone!

Welcome to another mod highlight! This will be the final mod highlight of the summer, and we will be returning to our regularly scheduled dev diaries on Thursday!

This mod highlight is all about new technologies, and all of the mods add new techs to expand on vanilla mechanics.


​
By NHunter


Written by NHunter​

Extra Ship Components aims to provide an extended and expanded technology tree that features upgraded versions of all vanilla weapon and utility components, as well new technology branches such as extra-large autocannons and missiles, and new kinetic and energy weapons. In addition to that, entirely-new types of weapons are introduced:

• Psionic weapons that allows one to unleash the full might of their empire's most powers psionics,
  
• Biological and Crystalline weapons based on spacebourne creatures, showcasing the empire's mastery over genetic engineering,
  
• Gravitic and Chrono-spatial weapons that utilize fundamental forces of nature to great and devastating effects,
  
• Nanite weapons with the power of very hungry synthetic life
  
• Special components obtainable only by defeating great leviathans to serve as a proof of an empire's might.

And with optional add ons, one can also change and improve the loadouts of FE fleets, giving them more power and thematic weapon sets, as well as unique components, some of which can be reverse engineered. Leviathans, Endgame Crises, Gray Goo and Curator Enclaves also receive a glow-up with improved ship designs to serve as a better challenge to the player.

By Sparble


Written by Sparble​

Hyperconstructs expands Stellaris' Megastructure features by adding 27 different new Megastructures to the game along with plenty of other content surrounding these. These structures currently reach from the relatively small Tier A ones, such as Shellworlds, to Tier G ones, which only the most advanced civilizations would be able to build.

At last, Hyperconstructs has integrated fully dedicated support for mods like Planetary Diversity and Gigastructural Engineering & More in the form of compatibility overrides, additional Gigastructure stages, and other effects.

More content is planned in the future, with an ever-growing list of megastructure ideas, event chains, and more, so stay tuned!

Features:

• Plenty New Megastructures
  
• New Planet & Star Classes
  
• New Become-The-Crisis Route
  
• New Endgame Crisis
  
• New Strategic Resources
  
• New Origins
  
• New Events
  
• New Technologies, Ship Components, Traits & Bombardment Stances
  
• New Jobs along with Districts & Buildings
  
• Dedicated Gigastructures + Planetary Diversity Support

Inspiration:
A huge inspiration for some of the megastructures have been Isaac Arthur's videos on Youtube. He has a great series of megastructure concepts and other space related stuff, and the initial idea for adding Shellworlds and the Stellar Hoop came from his videos.

Another initial inspiration for Hyperconstructs was that when Nemesis was released I liked the (back then) newly added player crisis mechanic, but wanted to stay ingame after ascension. This is how I came up with the idea of the Dimensional Tearer, allowing players to ascend into a higher plane of existence, but still being able to stay ingame after their ascension to mess with reality as they like.

Huge thanks to the Stellaris Community as they really helped me over time with my modding questions; I most likely wouldn't have advanced that much into modding without their help!

By Sunconure11


Written by Sunconure11​

Exploring hypothetical technologies in scales from the Micro to the Atto and everything between, the mod offers a plethora of new options for empires, many of which are derived from the sci-fi encyclopedia at Orion's Arm. All heavily integrate Nanites and make them an essential component of cutting edge empires. Three variations of the ascension perk to start your nanotechnology journey have been included; one for Organic Empires, one for Synths, and one for Machine empires.

Features:

• 40+ new technologies
  
• 5 new ship components
  
• two new buildings
  
• two new megastructures
  
• one of which is a giant AI entity who’s “personality” you get to influence
  
• a series of upgradable planet modifiers
  
• a new planet bombardment stance
  
• three new armies with a unique icon
  
• a set of traits for Synths and Machines equivalent to the Brain Slug for Organics
  
• And more!

​
By Daniellm


Written by Daniellm​

Dawn Of Ascension is a Vanilla+ mod that expands on the mid to end game content of Stellaris. It adds multiple event chains to learn the secrets of dark matter power, including infiltrating a Fallen Empire's Master Archive, digging up old abandoned Precursor shipyards or even putting your best scientists at the major task of inventing it yourself!

The major feature of the mod is "the ascension project" , a long situation where you invent a bunch of dark matter related technologies, and even go beyond what the fallen empires did before you, however... the ancient guardians will not sit idle and watch the primitive empires do the ascension project.

Are you ready for the next step in your technological evolution?

Features:

• 3 new event chains to gain Dark Matter Power
  
• new civics allowing everything from putting dark matter cores into your machine worlds, to having scion wargoals so everyone fights to unite the galaxy under your banner
  
• The ascension project, a long project allowing you to go beyond those that came before you.
  
• New ascendant shipset
  
• 3 tiers of FE+ automated industries
  
• New ships allowing you to match the power level of FE ships and beyond
  
• 2 New tech tiers for components
  
• Custom weapon effects for all weapons
  
• Doa is made with mod compatibility in mind and should be compatible with everything!
  
• 2 different ascension mechanics depending on what mods you have installed

That’s it for this Mod Highlight! Hope you’ve found some new mods to discover, and new things to learn out in the galaxy.

Thanks for reading!

by MrFreake_PDX

Hello everyone!

Welcome to another mod highlight, Michael_Stellaris has some great mods lined up for us this week, and this week’s theme is exploration! These mods will make the galaxy more interesting and diverse, and who doesn’t love new things to find out in the galaxy. I’m sure nothing bad will happen.



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Dangerous Wildlife Expanded is a very unique mod, adds much more depth to dangerous wildlife, and should make planets feel much more unique, and can even alter the course of your playthrough.
By WoodenPotatoes


This section was written by WoodenPotatoes

Firstly, I really liked the idea of expanding on the sorts of non-intelligent fauna we might find around the galaxy, like T-Rexes and Mammoths and whatnot. Stellaris is utterly fantastic with intelligent aliens, primitive aliens, and even has pre-sapients. But what kind of wildlife is out there? What alien monsters and creepy crawlies lurk on foreign worlds?

Secondly, I really liked the concept of mounted alien cavalry.

So I made this!

Features:

• Diversify the flavour of the "Dangerous Wildlife" planetary feature
  
• Defend your colonies from these creatures as they attack you
  
• Eventually, recruit them for yourself

Inspiration:
I was really inspired by one of the launch army attachments "Xeno Cavalry", and have a lot of fond memories of mounting my psionic warriors on them.

I do have a funny bug story from development on this one: In one early prototype of the attack events I hadn't set a flag to tell the monsters to stop attacking if they had already won. This meant that if you, the player, lost to a horde of, let's say, dire wolves, then a couple of years later you might look at your planet see that even more dire wolves had now come out of hiding to attack the new top dogs in charge! This was happening everywhere, best of all on planets with multiple types of wildlife at once. You'd have swarms of giant cockroaches trying to eat T-rexes, Woolly Rhinos duking it out against alien Yeti, Bats vs Spiders, you get the picture. An entire galaxy of raging wildlife.

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More Events Mod is one of the most popular event mods out there, it definitely deserves to be featured. It contains some really fun event chains, systems, and new things to find out in the galaxy.
By Malthus


This section was written by Malthus

Our mod started out shortly after Stellaris' release back in 2016. A lot of people have worked on and contributed to it over the years, among them great scripters, writers and 2d/3d artists who all shared the same goal of adding more to the the game experience in terms of short stories through anomalies and bigger story arcs with digsites, quests and even some mid game crises (Broken Clock, Vazuran Menace, Surveyor Probe). All of which is meant to add to the Stellaris lore while staying true to it without contradictions - a vanilla+ basically.

Over the time it grew quite a bit from just being a few anomalies and events at the start, to now having nearly two dozen digsites, three mid game crises and even custom species portraits which were made for their respective events but are also fully usable for ai empires. It may be bloat to some, but it is just a big package by now.

Features:

• dozens of anomalies
  
• early and mid game events, multiple archaeological sites and a few origins
  
• multiple mid game crises
  
• various species portraits

Inspiration:
The mod was originally created by vonMourn shortly after the initial Stellaris release. I joined a few weeks later, when he asked around for people interested in contributing to it. Back then I had no idea about scripting and just wanted to add my "Event Horizon" knockoff story about a possessed ship that took its crew into hell. So writing was all good and well, but getting into scripting afterwards was a lot of trial and error back when there weren't such cool helpers like CWTools around. It was a great help though that all the stuff in Stellaris is as easily accessible with a text editor as it is.


The Broken Clock system from More Events Mod

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Guilli's Planet Modifiers and Features adds a ton of new anomalies, relics, and modifiers to make planets, and outer space more interesting.
By Guilliman


For version 3.12+ of the game, section written by Guilliman

A big content expansion mod focusing on Planetary Modifiers. With hundreds of modifiers and lots of content that interacts with them.

Features:

• Over 400 new Planet Modifiers
  
• Many new planet features and blockers
  
• Terraforming improvements through planet modifiers
  
• New planetary decisions to interact with planet modifiers
  
• Tons of story events
  
• New Anomalies and exploration events
  
• New policy: survey expeditions
  
• New Precursor Dig Sites that interact with precursor planet modifiers
  
• Precursor Discoveries (technologies, components, bonuses,..)
  
• 29 new relics
  
• Relic War Goals (claim relics!)
  
• Espionage to steal relics
  
• Relic galaxy map overlay to see who has relics and how many (based on intel)
  
• New precursor planet: "Archaeopolis" (requires Ancient Relics DLC)
  
• Minor Artifacts uses, techs, armies (requires Ancient Relics DLC)
  
• Broken Mini-Megastructures that spawn across the galaxy
  
• Wondrous Planets
  
• Custom options menu at the start of the game

Inspiration:
I always found planets a little boring but I was mostly curious if I could mod a single planet modifier to see how hard it would be. It got a little bit out of hand from there.. :)

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More Primitives adds more content for primitives. It adds new events, 11 new Primitive eras, pre-FTL colonization of other habitable planets, and more!

By Sparble


This section written by Sparble

More Primitives, as the name suggests, is a mod all about Pre-FTL civilizations, with its main focus being Pre-FTL Ages, Events, Situations and Special Projects.

The mod started with a handful of primitive events, such as particle accelerator construction with mysterious events related to that, Pre-FTL world war with multiple outcomes, primitives entering a fanatic philosophical age from which they could turn into primitive purifiers, begin to worship multiple benevolent or malicious shroud entities, or embrace deeply philosophical debates such as anti-natalism.

These events were expanded over time, and new event chains came along, such as primitives colonizing their solar system before reaching FTL, their reaction to megastructures in their system, or Pre-FTLs entering a robotic age and developing a technological singularity, which would eventually become self-aware an either trigger a global catastrophe or ultimately become the benevolent savior of the primitive species.

It's also worth mentioning that More Primitives does not require the First Contact DLC, but adds additional content on top of that if used along with it.

Features:

• Plenty of new Pre-FTL Events & Event Chains
  
• 11 New Pre-FTL Ages
  
• Pre-FTL Machine Intelligences
  
• New special projects & interactions related to Pre-FTL events
  
• Other flavor stuff related to primitives (Pre-FTL buildings, modifiers, planet class, traits)
  
• Dedicated Cross-Mod Support

You can never have enough primitive content!

More Primitives was my first ever Stellaris mod and, with the help of the great modding community, inspired me to expand my initially very limited knowledge about modding, which has resulted in much new and improved content and the release of various other mods over time, expanding and adding new features to expand the Stellaris Universe.

—

That’s it for this week, we have one more Mod Highlight scheduled for August 10th before Dev Diaries resume on August 15th!

See you then!

Hello everyone!

While the devs are off frolicing in the sun, we decided this is a great opportunity to highlight (mostly) community mods!



We wanted to change things up a bit this year, but we have such a hard time choosing between all the amazing mods on the workshop, so instead we made Michael~ do it. Michael has assembled several collections of mods each based on a theme, and then we tracked down the modders and asked if they had anything they wanted to share about their mods.

So without further ado, I present:
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The Friends We Made Along The Way

This mod collection is all based on the various storytelling aspects of Stellaris. From origins (letting the player create a unique backstory), to event mods (allowing you to create compelling narratives throughout the game). That's the reason why many people (including myself) got into the game, and that's the unique quality about Stellaris - the ability to create your own story, and fulfill your scifi fantasy.

By Exakan



Darkspace is a vanilla+ and roleplay mod, not an overhaul. DarkSpace does not change basic game mechanics and players have full control over the content, the game will only change if you choose an option. DarkSpace offers a whole host of new, unique playstyles that vanilla Stellaris doesn’t.

Features:

• +15 Origins with unique game mechanics & asymmetrical gameplay. Some of them even have their own category of multiple civics.
  
• Multiple new Civics for roleplay or game mechanics.
  
• Ascension Perks for all empire types.
  
• Unique playstyles (Eldritch, Plague, Nomads, Nanites, Crisis..)
  
• >25 Megastructures, dependent on perks, origins or crisis paths.
  
• Has the largest & most complex Nomad origin that exists right now.
  
• You can become a fallen empire, and create new civilizations by hand.
  
• Some portraits and shipsets (Unbidden, Organic, Fallen Empire) etc for roleplay.
  
• DS is made with great cross-mod compatibility in mind.
  
• Right now a story-interactive endgame crisis with multiple choices/paths is in the works

Inspiration:
DarkSpace is my personal playground. If I find an idea that I would like to play as in Stellaris, then I add it. With the "fun factor" secured for myself, I know Ill put the required passion into the project. I keep everything optional though, the player decides what the mod is doing with their game .

I never expected the mod to "explode" that much, I expected like 1k subs at start. The Stellaris community is very friendly and it makes a lot of fun to mod for them :)


By caligulacaesar

Disclaimer: When Michael~ was selecting this list of mods, he was not aware that Caligula works for Paradox Development Studios and was previously a developer on Stellaris. Caligula was recruited as a Stellaris developer after making this mod.



Stellaris empires have never really felt alive. Imagine if we (us Humans) suddenly weren’t the only species on our planet – how we get on with the others would soon be one of the big topics. Or if machines produced half our output suddenly, one could imagine it might be difficult to adjust. These societal factors are currently not represented well in Stellaris - there are the factions, but they don't have events surrounding them. Even now, 8 years past release, we still have not had the fabled Internal Politics DLC that could, possible, change this.

This mod was an attempt from 2018 to fill this void. It adds dozens of events - and some ridiculously extensive branching event chains - to give you further stories to experience and decisions to make about how you run your empire.

Features:

• Events to do with integrating alien species, including tensions between species and your attitude towards interspecies marriages.
  
• Events focusing on pops’ and factions’ specific demands (e.g. emancipation movements).
  
• Colonisation Stories – your new colonists on a planet might choose their own leader or how they wish to organise themselves.
  
• Establish a ruler cult to your emperor.
  
• Various scandals and conspiracies.
  
• Events affecting interstate relations.
  
• And more (over 55,000 words of text in total).

Inspiration:
The original inspiration for my mod was twofold: firstly, I loved playing Stellaris, but the version in those days (1.6 or so) has relatively little content beyond the initial exploration, and I wanted to add more storylines to experience later in the game. Secondly, I was working a job I found very boring, and it was very nice to have a creative outlet.

After doing that for a year, I ended up being hired by Paradox, and I'm still there over 5 years later, so I think that worked out for me!

And I still keep the mod up to date, even though I don't add new event chains, because for the most part it still holds up well.

By inny78




Embark on a cosmic odyssey with this mod, where a tapestry of interstellar narratives unfolds for your science team amidst the boundless realms of the galaxy. Delve into the forgotten tales of ancient precursor empires, their legacies lost in the starlit void long before your celestial journey began. Uncover hidden dig sites and engage with enigmatic anomalies that beckon with inscrutable secrets. Every discovery and encounter weaves into the fabric of your empire's destiny, steering its path through the stars.

Recommended DLC, but not required: Ancient Relics, Utopia, Synthetic Dawn, Nemesis and First Contact - these will provide additional rewards.

Features:

• New Precursor chains
  
• New Dig sites
  
• New events

Inspiration:
When XVCV announced that he would stop modding, I decided that his amazing mods (Precursor Story Pack and Archaeology Story Pack) should not be abandoned. I added later some old mods that I enjoyed, with the permission of their authors Marky612 (Strange Worlds, resurrected from the Stellaris 1.6 era) and QUENTOPOLIS' Fires of Ziaskehorn.

I wanted to preserve the stories told by abandonded event mods, and also create my own with more liberties than the constraints of Extra Events Continued. So I created the Stellaris Chronicles collection (Extra Events Continued and Forgotten Empires) and started creating Forgotten Empires with a curated selection of lore-friendly stories. These stories don't require any DLC but the events can make use of them if they are present. Now that I'm satisfied with the new precursors, my focus is now on creating shorter stories and unique systems.

By cybrxkhan



Basic Ordinary Origins adds in several new origins that are just that - basic and ordinary. They are simple origins meant to provide alternative "default" origins to Prosperous Unification, with starting bonuses that are similarly mundane and not drastic. They won’t change gameplay significantly, but will hopefully add flavor and variety to your games so not every nation starts with the “Prosperous Unification” origin. Though this isn’t meant to be perfectly balanced, keeping in line with the vanilla origins' lack of balance, none will ideally be overpowered.

Features:
20+ new "simple" origins; usable by both human players and AI empires:

• Antediluvian Knowledge
  
• Chosen Revolutionary
  
• Chosen Royal
  
• Clean Energy
  
• Former Scavengers
  
• Global Wars
  
• Great Khanate
  
• Legendary Friendship
  
• Lost Continent
  
• Mysterious Bonds
  
• One with Nature
  
• Post-Post-Apocalyptic
  
• Silk Road
  
• Slow Evolution
  
• Steampunk
  
• Survival of the Fittest
  
• The Gate
  
• Trekkers of the Stars
  
• War to End All Wars

Inspiration:
I started Basic Ordinary Origins (BOO) back in 2020 when the Origins feature was first added. A lot of vanilla's origins other than Prosperous Unification are complex and have deep storylines attached to them, so I felt there was a lack of simple origins to make things more interesting without needing the larger origins.

I've been modding Stellaris since it came out in 2016. My major mods which I started back then, and which I still maintain, are Cybrxkhan's Assortment of Namelists (CANS) and More AI Personalities (MAP). CANS adds more (mostly fictional) namelists that both players can use and AI empires can randomly spawn with, while MAP adds new AI personalities. They're both compatible with and complement BOO well.

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That’s all for this week! We’ll be back in two week’s time with another Mod Highlight!

If you've ever wanted to have a citizen of the Stellaris universe staring at you from across the room, now's your chance!

Stellaris and Makeship have teamed up to bring this war criminal adorable Starfish Plushie to life -- but only for a limited time.


If not friend, why friend-shaped?



*Suit of armor not included*

Make sure to assimilate this fanatic purifier into your empire while you can!

Specifications:
Eyes: 4
Arms: 6
Inches: 11.5
USD: $29.99
Galaxies Ruined: All of them!​

by Eladrin

Stellaris is having a free weekend! Tell your friends!


Play Stellaris for free this weekend!

We’ve asked the Dev team for some tips to help new players out during their first steps out into the wondrous unknown.

• Don't forget to unpause the game, but don't be afraid to pause it again if you need time to think. - Eladrin
  
• The different options in empire creation aren’t created equally, some empires will be more powerful than others, but regardless you’ll get more enjoyment out of the game by playing what you find fun (or what you find the idea of to be fun) without looking up the “perfect build”. - Alfray Stryke
  
• Buildings don't produce Resources, Jobs produce Resources! Just because you've built a shiny new Research Lab doesn't mean there's anyone working there. Click the Population tab to learn more! - OK_Television_391
  
• Stellaris has mid-game and end-game crises that you might not be able to defeat on your first try. Each defeat makes your eventual triumph more satisfying. - Eladrin
  
• Read the tooltips. - PDX_Ferry
  
• Not every Species eats food, some eat energy and others minerals. - Paradoxical_Nikname
  
• Got a neighbor that closed the borders and rivaled you? It is a matter of time before they will declare war on you. Choose a choke point, build a star base, upgrade it with defense buildings. It might be just enough to defend the border, but for extra measure you can also build some defense platforms on the station or station your fleet there. This will enable you to mostly ignore that aggressive neighbor and focus on expanding/exploring the other direction.
  
• Losing a war isn't losing the game, enjoy your moments of vengeful plotting as much as your triumphs. - Beals
  
• Just because you've got slightly more fleet power than an enemy, it doesn't mean you're definitely going to win.
  
• If the notifications are too spammy (or not spammy enough), you can configure them in the settings. - pthooie
  
• A few Origins are more challenging than others. Doomsday, Broken Shackles, and Payback start you off with some major challenges to overcome, and may be better to save until you have a few games under your belt. - Eladrin
  
• Don't worry too much about what people say is best. Making an empire with a cool backstory will keep you entertained a lot longer than one with perfect numbers! - Iggy
  
• Make sure you expand you fleet early on, or you might be prey to the first neighbour you find. - Paradoxical_Nikname
  
• Your pops will love the Holo-Theater building.- PDX_Ferry
  
• As expected in a sci-fi game, Research is king, however this means Unity is queen - don’t neglect the development of your empire’s Traditions in pursuit of new Technologies. - Alfray Stryke
  
• If you spawn next to a Criminal syndicate, keep an eye on your planets, or you might get overwhelmed by crime. - Paradoxical_Nikname
  
  • Correction: If you spawn next to a criminal syndicate, blow it up - Beals
• Pops > Everything. Want to increase your power in the galaxy? Colonize, boost Pop Growth Speed, encourage Immigration... But whatever method you choose, remember ABP: "Always Be Poppin!" - OK_Television_391
  
• For single player, it's good to queue up your science ship exploration and pick your first three technologies to research before you un-pause.
  
• Set up a monthly trade in the Market to get missing resources.- PDX_Ferry
  
• Be brave and break things, choose a clearly wrong choice, make mistakes, crack open that ancient tomb, the galaxy is yours and full of wonders! - Beals
  
• But most of all, have fun, and thanks for playing Stellaris! - Eladrin

Do you have any tips for the new explorers? Share them!

Stellaris is partnering with Makeship to produce a limited edition Stellaris Starfish plushie!

They may have destroyed Europa VII, but we can still be friends, right?


Click to go to the campaign!

Summer vacations are here, so this will be the last dev diary until mid-August, when we will return with information about Cosmic Storms and the Stellaris 3.13 “Vela” update.

Have a great summer, and thank you for playing Stellaris!

Dear Stellaris Fans,

Our latest and greatest version of the game, the 3.12.5 patch, is now live and available for download.

This patch brings further fixes and tweaks and wraps up our 3.12 + The Machine Age release cycle.
Please find the patch notes below.


Improvement

• Obsessional Directive empires that control a black hole now get an option for safe and secure storage for their commodities.
  
• Reworked how Fallen Empires view empires trying to match their technological level. Unless you're a Scion, any FE level tech you acquire will accrue a stacking opinion penalty with them, that is doubled for the materialist Fallen Empire.
  
• Added new building icons for the Sensorium and Simulation Sites and their upgrades
  
• Species list will not longer show founder species from various contacts that do not even have any presence on any of the planets.
  
• Megastrutures that are supposed to be built outside the gravity well will not be displayed in the list whilte trying to build one on top of planets or stars.
  
• Nanite deposits with non-zero available quantity below 1 now appear in galaxy and solar system views
  
• Nanotech empires will no longer receive ships every 5 years, and will instead gain an equivalent amount of nanites with which to build ships. They now have access to the Interdictor ship, a battleship alternative with a fixed nanite cost that can use torpedoes and hangars.

UI

• The first Outliner tab now includes military fleets, civilian ships and armies by default.

Balance

• Constructing an Arc Furnace in a system will now remove all trade deposits to make way for the mining stations
  
• Increased the output of Haruspex and Technophants.
  
• Haruspex now produce 3 Unity and 2.5 Engineering Research (was 2 Unity and 2 Engineering Research).
  
• Technophants now produce 6 Unity and 5 Engineering Research (was 4 Unity and 4 Engineering Research).
  
• Spyware Directives now start with Basic Cloaking Fields as a research option
  
• Synaptic Subprocessing for Hive Minds now grants Augmentor Drones to Spawning Pools instead of Modular Cybernetics, however the effect on Empire Size from Districts was halved
  
• Modular Cybernetics now grants Hive Minds +3 Organic Species Trait Points as they cannot research robotic technologies
  
• The AI Emporium Branch Office Holding no longer provides +5% resources from jobs, instead it provides +1 Identity Designer job and +10% Branch Office Value from Roboticists and Identity Designers. This allows the empire in which it is constructed to assemble robots even if they do not have the required technology. However, only one can be constructed in each empire in which you have a branch office and it can only be constructed if the empire has not outlawed robots.
  
• The Customer Insights edict now reduces both the energy and influence cost for Branch Offices
  
• The Empire Size Effect for Integrated Hives has been reduced from -50% to -33%
  
• Empire Size from Pops for OTA Updates has been reduced from -20% to -15%
  
• Empire Size from Pops from Harmony and Synchronicity tradition trees have been reduced from -15% to -10%
  
• Cetana's relic now provides -50% planetary ascension cost, down from 75%.
  
• The job strata bonuses from Synthesization have been rebalanced, moved to the robot assembly buildings, and apply to both regular empires and Synthetic Fertility

Bugfix

• Planets which had an anomaly present while an Arc Furnace was constructed will now correctly inherit all the deposits when the anomaly is cleared, if the planet can support mining deposits
  
• Updated many anomalies to no longer remove deposits if applicable.
  
• Gone Native' event has default text in case none of the other options were appropriate
  
• AI Empires will check if they already have an assigned emissary for the galactic community before assigning a new one.
  
• AI will assign emissaries to the Galactic Community.
  
• AI will check if a federation already has an assigned representative before assigning a new one. Will prevent it from continually switching representatives.
  
• Cybernetic Creed start event duplication blocked
  
• Fallen Empires created by Cosmogenesis should now no longer sometimes be created tragically without a personality.
  
• Federation/Galcom fleet template size is now limited by the corresponding capacity, not by the command limit.
  
• Fixed Augmentation Bazaars sometimes not granting the full effects from some Cyberization choices
  
• Fixed Expand the Council agenda behavior for savefiles that predate Galactic Paragons DLC
  
• Fixed former federation fleets being treated as federation fleets when checking which ship designs can be added to the template.
  
• Fixed some logical errors for the Bot Lord, Truth Seeker and Shroud Preacher traits
  
• Fixed the concept tooltip for Machine Template System
  
• Fixed the nanite deposit scaling
  
• Fixed the void dweller origin sometimes trying to spawn a mining station around the habitat central complex
  
• Hide Dyson Sphere build option when Machine DLC is enabled
  
• Increased the animation speed of Imperial Colossus. Now it has enough time to trigger laser beam animation.
  
• New rulers will properly abandon their old council positions.
  
• Paradox titan graphics no longer uses the same mesh twice and looks broken.
  
• Pre-sapient pop will no longer display colony abandonment cost if only one sapient pop is left on the planet.
  
• Psionic species variants can be cyberized
  
• Refugees will no longer flee to places where they will be dismantled on arrival
  
• Replaced most checks for the Servile, Nerve Stapled, Zombie and Suppressed traits with the can_think trait.
  
• Science ships using automation should no longer excavate archeology sites that aren't available to the owning empire.
  
• Script error in resort worker job block
  
• The Psionic Theory no longer tries to check if your empire has the Psionic Expertise trait, instead it checks if a Councilor has the trait.
  
• The tooltip for Diplomatic Weight now states "Delegate" instead of "Envoys"
  
• The Victory Score breakdown will now correctly include Victory Score from effects in its Score calculation at the top of the screen.
  
• When a country leaves a federation, its federation fleet templates are now transferred to the president.
  
• When a federation is disbanded, the president takes control of all federation fleet templates, including ones without a fleet.
  
• When a non-president country builds a federation fleet from a template, the template is now transferred to the president along with the fleet.
  
• When the GDF changes ownership, GDF fleet templates without actual fleets are now transferred.
  
• The Eternal Throne relic still grants immortality after the Eternal Machine species trait has been modified away.
  
• Arc Furnace and Dyson Swarm limits no longer suffer an off-by-one error
  
• Outposts raids conducted by multiple fleets should no longer be cut short after one of the fleets is destroyed.
  
• Made sure that non player countries are properly destroyed upon activation of the Aetherophasic Engine.
  
• The Reformed Queen event should now properly display Cetana.
  
• Ministry of Acquisition checks for Overlord Consumer Goods Use
  
• Ship preview should no longer black out when viewing certain ships

AI

• AI empires can no longer adopt Virtuality.

Stability

• Fixed crash in federation fleet ui entry after resync
  
• Fixed crash in federation member UI item when resyncing
  
• Fixed crash upon loading a save with faulty owners of megastructures
  
• Fixed CTD when technology without tech area is processed by the database
  
• Fixes oos related to mining planet megastructure
  
• Fixed CTD at startup on older macOS (before 13.x) due to missing library

Modding

• Added on_auto_colony_type_changed on_action.
  
• Added the Servile trait to the can_think scripted trigger

The team will now shift focus to our next major release, as well as take some vacation in between.

See you again after summer!